SAUDIS BEHEAD TWO DRUG DEALERS

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP)-- Two days after Canadian William Sampson was
spared a death sentence and released from a Saudi jail, the Mideast kingdom
beheaded two foreigners convicted of drug trafficking, the official Saudi
Press Agency reported yesterday.

Lal Rahman Habiballah Khan of Pakistan was arrested while smuggling heroin
to Saudi Arabia, according to SPA. He was executed in the Saudi capital,
Riyadh.

Asadallah bin Mohammed Jan bin Rahim Dad of Afghanistan was also beheaded
yesterday in the Red Sea port city of Jiddah. He had been convicted of
trying to smuggle heroin into the kingdom, SPA said.

The executions raised the number of beheadings this year to 30. Last year,
at least 49 people - including two women - were beheaded.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam law, under which
people convicted of murder, rape, drug trafficking and armed robbery are
executed in public. Beheadings are carried out with swords.

Sampson, 44, spent 31 months in a Saudi jail after being convicted and
sentenced to death along with a British man for a fatal car bombing in
November 2000. On Friday, Saudi Arabia released the six men and another who
had been held without charge after King Fahd granted them all clemency.

Sampson and his fellow detainees have denied any role in the bombings that
began in Riyadh in 2000, blamed on a turf war between rival gangs dealing
in illegal alcohol, which is forbidden in the Muslim country.